A defence barrister also labelled PC Zachary Marsden as being ‘unhinged’PC Zachary Marsden who is alleged to have been assaulted at Manchester Airport(Image: GMP)

A police officer was branded an ‘uncontrolled bully with a badge’ by a barrister representing one of the brothers accused of assault during a violent confrontation at Manchester Airport.

PC Zachary Marsden was also labelled as being ‘unhinged’ by Chloe Gardner, the lawyer representing 26-year-old Muhammed Amaad. Amaad and his younger brother, university student Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, both of Tarnside Close in Rochdale, deny assaulting armed cops and say they acted in self-defence. They are standing trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

Amaaz was captured throwing 12 blows including punches, ‘elbow strikes’ and one kick while his brother, Amaad, was seen throwing six punches in CCTV footage previously played to the jury. The footage also showed one of the armed police officers, PC Zachary Marsden, kicking Amaaz in the face while he was on the ground after the suspect had been Tasered, before appearing to aim a stamp at his head.

Police were initially called after Amaaz allegedly headbutted a member of the public, Abdulkareem Hamzah Abbas Ismaeil, minutes earlier in a Starbucks café. The brothers claimed Mr Ismaeil had racially abused and assaulted their mother during her flight to Manchester from Qatar.

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On Friday, jurors heard Ms Gardner’s closing speech. She claimed that CCTV footage comes with a ‘big warning sign’. “There is no audio,” she said. “It doesn’t show, as we think it might, every angle. It cannot convey what is going on in someone’s mind. The danger is we all tend to forget how quickly this happened.”

She told the jury that neither brother was ‘looking for a fight’ when they went to pick up their mother from the airport. The barrister said: “Mr Amaad, like his brother, was someone who had never been in trouble before.”

Ms Gardner said the ‘height’ of Amaad’s involvement in the Starbucks incident was to ‘de-escalate matters’. She claimed that after the brothers had made their way to the car park pay station, Amaaz was grabbed and assaulted.

Mohammed Fahir Amaaz and Muhammed Amaad (left), arrive at Liverpool Crown Court(Image: PA)

She said of PC Marsden: “Imagine grabbing and assaulting someone and saying nothing at all becomes accepted police practice, what then? He seems to have thrown the rule book away long ago. He uses unnecessary violence, we say.”

Ms Gardner added: “Nothing is said, members of the jury, by any of the officers. Not even that they are police. Certainly no announcement of any intent to arrest or detain. That’s crucial.”

She described the officer as being ‘aggressive and uncontrolled’, and claimed he was ‘covered in red mist’. Ms Gardner alleged that ‘from the outset’ PC Marsden ‘had no regard for procedure’ and ‘no interest in doing things the right way’.

“His way was the only way,” she told the jury. She claimed that PC Marsden lied in his statement after the incident, in his statement to the Independent Office for Police Conduct and in court giving evidence.

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“PC Marsden didn’t act lawfully in doing what he did,” Ms Gardner alleged. “His actions come under the chapter unlawful and unethical.”

Ms Gardner said: “The reality is PC Marsden, firearm on his leg, Taser on his chest, was a weapon in himself.” She referenced a statement in which PC Marsden said the situation ‘prompted me to close him down’.

She said: “PC Marsden is not in a war zone, he is in a pay station car park, he needs to behave as if he is in a pay station car park. Mr Amaad had done nothing to him at this point.”

Ms Gardner said that Amaad ‘felt pulling from all sides’ and was ‘disorientated’. She said: “He had never been in this situation before. He had a split second to try and get him away from that situation.

A still from footage of the confrontation at the car park pay station

“In the heat of the moment Mr Amaad did no more than he thought was necessary. He did what was necessary. He believed he was under attack.” She said that PC Marsden Tasered Amaad, and that shortly after he put his hands on his head. She reminded jurors that Amaad said in his evidence ‘I’m not dying today’, and ‘I didn’t know what could come next’.

“He is terrified, he doesn’t know what PC Marsden was going to do next,” Ms Gardner said. She said of the officer: “He is an uncontrolled bully with a badge.”

Ms Gardner claimed PC Marsden was ‘unhinged’. “PC Marsden could have killed Mr Amaaz with that kick to the head,” she said. “He could have suffocated Mr Amaad.”

Judge Neil Flewitt KC told jurors that they would be sent out to consider their verdicts on Monday, after he summarises the facts of the case.

Proceeding.